People Magazine is pretty good at choosing and promoting the up-and-coming stars of television and film, and this week’s choice is Australian actor Sam Worthington, who stars with Christian Bale in Terminator: Salvation. Worthington will also be the lead in James Cameron’s latest sci-fi extravaganza, Avatar, coming out later this year. People has one of those “Five things you didn’t know about…” lists, and Worthington comes across as a pretty nice (somewhat boring) guy. It’s like, stop the presses, he’s near-sighted! Breaking news, he says nice things about Arnold Schwarzenegger! But that’s not the point, is it? Because Sam Worthington is the next big guy – the next Russell Crowe, the next Hugh Jackman. He’s got that same sexy, naughty look. What is it with Australian men and that look, like they’re just about to do something wonderfully filthy?

He may be new to moviegoers in this country, but the 32-year-old Australian hunk who plays opposite Christian Bale’s in Terminator Salvation has been a mainstay in movies and TV in his home country for the last decade.

Now, Worthington is following in the footsteps of Mel Gibson, Hugh Jackman, and Russell Crowe (“My favorite actor, no question,” he says) as the latest hottie from Down Under to become an American action hero. So, is he ready for it? “I don’t think that anyone can really be prepared,” Worthington tells PEOPLE. “I think you’d be silly.”

Here are five things to know about Hollywood’s hottest cyborg.

Before he was an action star, he was a bricklayer: “I built houses,” says Worthington, whose life changed course when he followed a girl to the same drama school that Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett attended. “I never had any intention of being an actor,” he says.

He’s not mad at you – he’s just extremely nearsighted: “People think that I squint because I’m angry all the time,” he says. “It’s just that I can’t f—— see.”

He is an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan: “I’m hoping to meet him,” he says of the Terminator actor-turned-politician. “Is that going to be possible? I watched Pumping Iron a couple of weeks ago and loved it. He’s extremely charismatic.”

Terminator Salvation is not the biggest movie he has this year: Worthington also stars in Avatar, a special-effects extravaganza from original Terminator director James Cameron, who cast the relatively unknown Aussie to star in his estimated $190 million opus. “He kept pushing back like you wouldn’t believe against a studio who didn’t know who the hell I was and thought that he was crazy,” says Worthington. “That guy changed my life. It’s simple as that.”

His newfound success hasn’t gone to his head – or his closet: “I still have the same clothes I had from way back when,” he says. “My mates go, ‘Don’t you buy clothes, you bum?’ ”

[From People]

The only reason I will rent Terminator is to see this guy – he’s the best part of the trailer. But I am looking forward to Avatar, which sounds incredible. It’s 3-D, and Worthington is playing “paralyzed retired Marine who undergoes an experiment to exist as an avatar, another version of himself . . . an alien – 10 feet (three meters) tall and blue.” The film also stars Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, and Giovanni Ribisi. It’s due out in December.

Sam Worthington is shown with his girlfriend, Natalie Mark, at the premiere of Terminator: Salvation on 5/14/09. Credit: WENN.com and Juan Rico/Fame Pictures